Cleanup & Remediation

Like so many other federal workplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board continues to have most of its staff working from home, according to the agency’s Annual Report to Congress. “The Board has proven its effectiveness while in maximum telework posture, despite the unexpected challenges of adapting work practices to remote […]

It is time for the Department of Energy to focus on ensuring two aging facilities for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at the Hanford Site in Washington state remain safe beyond the current 40-year design life, according to a recent DOE report. The agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments, in the report issued last month, […]

More than a year after announcing its plans to keep incumbent cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT on the job at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Department of Energy has executed a potential $690-million extension that could run until late March 2023. The final agreement, announced today by the two partners, took effect March 29 and includes […]

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes the Hanford Site, wants Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to continue a controversial policy change from the Donald Trump administration that declared certain radioactive waste now categorized as high-level may not need to go to a deep underground disposal site. In a March 30 letter to Granholm, […]

The lure of getting a piece of the potential $26.5-billion Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract (ITDC) at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state attracted a crowd of nearly 90 tire-kickers to virtual meetings held last week by the Department of Energy. DOE spread out the meetings over three days, Tuesday through Thursday, to […]

Don’t expect the Department of Energy to roll out its final solicitation for the potential $26.5-billion Integrated Tank Disposition Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state before August, officials said Tuesday during a virtual briefing for potential bidders. Hanford’s site manager, Brian Vance and many of his lieutenants at the DOE Office of Environmental […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico has halted transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory after sparks from a waste drum prompted evacuations at both the lab and the disposal site. That is according to a […]

About 18 months after the Department of Energy put up for sale 52 old railcars used to ship contaminated soil, Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions bought the equipment for $350,000. The 100-ton railcars, now located at Savannah River Site in South Carolina, were used in cleanup both there and at DOE’s Fernald Closure Project outside Cincinnati, […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday it is justified in extending the current Swift & Staley landlord services agreement at the Paducah Site in Kentucky for up to six months while the Small Business Administration decides whether the company is too big to receive a follow-on contract for the work. The Small Business Administration (SBA) […]

While the weekly infection numbers remain well below winter levels for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, agency officials are staying mum on when operations might return to something akin to pre-pandemic levels. “Given the current rates of COVID across the county, we have no timeline or projections on when sites will return to […]

An affiliate of Idaho-based North Wind Group was picked by the Department of Energy from a field of eight firms to build a $50-million research center for nuclear cleanup at the University of South Carolina at Aiken, located about 20 miles from the Savannah River Site. Roughly six months after issuing a sources-sought for contractors, […]

Two key Congressional Democrats from Washington state, Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Adam Smith, are proposing to make it easier for cleanup workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site and elsewhere to claim medical benefits after being exposed to toxic substances. The lawmakers last week proposed the Toxic Exposure Safety Act of 2021. Murray, […]

About 18 months after the Department of Energy put up for sale 52 old railcars used to ship contaminated soil, Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions bought the equipment for $350,000. The 100-ton railcars, now located at Savannah River Site in South Carolina, were used in cleanup both there and at DOE’s Fernald Closure Project outside Cincinnati, […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday it is justified in extending the current Swift & Staley landlord services agreement at the Paducah Site in Kentucky for up to six months while the Small Business Administration decides whether the company is too big to receive a follow-on contract for the work. DOE awarded the extension, worth […]

The number of confirmed, active COVID-19 cases at Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites fell again this week to 137 —meanwhile a boss at one of the smaller remediation sites said certain indoor work will not resume there until local coronavirus stats improve.  The 137 cases at the Office of Environmental Management (EM) this week […]

The total civil penalties imposed by the state of Idaho against the Department of Energy for failing to treat sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory now exceeds $10 million, a state official said this week. As of March 31, the assessed penalty will hit $10,062,000, Natalie Creed, hazardous waste bureau chief for the Idaho […]

Following a protest by a rival bidder with the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Energy is taking a second look at the $1-billion security contract it awarded last month to a joint venture led by Securitas CIS for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. A notice posted on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) […]

After a former lobbyist accused him of sexual harassment, Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), whose 23rd congressional district includes the West Valley Demonstration Project, will retire from the House of Representatives rather than run for re-election, the lawmaker announced via Twitter on Sunday. Reed further said he will not seek any political office in 2022. The […]

Design work on a $50-million research center for nuclear cleanup at the University of South Carolina at Aiken should start later this year, the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Advisory Board heard this week. The Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative, to be built about 20 miles north of the Savannah River Site, “is now fully funded” after […]

David Turk was sworn in this week as the deputy secretary of energy after clearing the Senate with only two Republicans in opposition. Turk took the oath, administered by his boss, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, on Thursday. The full Senate approved his nomination Wednesday 98-2, with only Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Rand Paul […]

Deciding where nuclear cleanup fits in the pecking order within President Joe Biden’s Department of Energy will likely be determined by the just-confirmed deputy secretary David Turk, the acting boss at the Office of Environmental Management said Wednesday. The assessment was offered by William (Ike) White, acting assistant secretary for the Office of Environmental Management […]

Certain indoor close quarters work at the West Valley Demonstration Project remains on hold until infection rates in Western New York drop, a manager with the Jacobs-led contractor said Wednesday during an online meeting of the Citizen Task Force for the cleanup site. The area of Western New York where the state-owned West Valley Demonstration […]

The total civil penalties imposed by the state of Idaho against the Department of Energy for failing to treat sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory now exceeds $10 million, a state official said this week. As of March 31, the assessed penalty will hit $10,062,000, Natalie Creed, hazardous waste bureau chief for the Idaho […]

Following a protest by a rival bidder with the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Energy is taking a second look at the $1-billion security contract it awarded last month to a joint venture led by Securitas CIS for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. A notice posted on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) […]

After a former lobbyist accused him of sexual harassment, Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), whose 23rd congressional district includes the West Valley Demonstration Project, will retire from the House of Representatives rather than run for re-election, the lawmaker announced via Twitter on Sunday. Reed further said he will not seek any political office in 2022. The […]

The head of the joint venture that manages the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site expects the rate of employee COVID-19 vaccinations to go from a trickle to a steady stream in the near future. “We have about 1,500 folks that have an appointment ready to go for their vaccinations,” within the next couple of […]

The conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and Paducah Site in Kentucky came to a stop in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and had yet to restart as of last week, federal and contractor representatives said during an online conference. Neither Zachary Lafontaine, DOE’s program […]

The Department of Energy, Washington State and the Environmental Protection Agency are meeting more frequently these days to negotiate changes to legally binding Hanford cleanup deadlines that longstanding technical challenges — and later, COVID-19 — may have made untenable, a Washington state official said Wednesday. “I am optimistic on some progress we have made,” Bowen […]

The Department of Energy could formally reply to subcontractor complaints at the Hanford Site in Washington state “within the next few days or the next few weeks,” Brian Vance, the top manager at the facility said Wednesday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management executive made his comments during a virtual meeting of the Hanford Advisory […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said Friday there were 153 active confirmed cases of COVID-19 at its operations this week — and that the tally it provided last week, 101, was off by more than 50 cases. The actual number from last week, discovered via audit, was 168, an Environmental Management (EM) […]